Murder Suspect Was Free Due to Possible Error

Authorities acknowledged Wednesday that one of the two men accused in the recent execution-style slaying of Sheriff’s Deputy Shayne York may have been on the streets--instead of in prison--because of an oversight by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Three years ago, authorities said, defendant Andre Montel Willis, 30, was sentenced to 32 months in state prison after he pleaded guilty, as an ex-felon, to possession of a firearm. But under the state’s three-strikes law, Willis could have been subject to 25 years to life because his previous felony conviction--a 1988 Ontario restaurant robbery--involved six victims.

Charges filed by the Orange County district attorney’s office allege that Willis’ companion, Kevin Boyce, 27, fired the shot, at point-blank range, in a Buena Park beauty salon one week ago today that proved fatal to York. A criminal complaint filed in Orange County on Monday charges both Willis and Boyce with murder and robbery. Boyce also faces an additional count of murder of a police officer who is in the course of doing his duty.

Both men face the death penalty if convicted.

Veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor Michael Hall, who prosecuted the 1994 case against Willis, took responsibility Wednesday for not having noticed that the defendant’s rap sheet showed multiple victims during the May 1988 robbery at a Denny’s near the Ontario airport.

“There are mistakes we all make in life where you say, ‘I’m glad nothing came of that.’ But I know if he had been charged and convicted [as a third striker], he would have been in prison now,” said Hall, a highly regarded, 27-year prosecutor with the district attorney’s office.

“I am well aware of that [fact] . . . and I feel bad I didn’t spot what was a third-strike case,” Hall said.

Meantime, the father of the slain deputy, speaking out for the first time since the killing, expressed frustration Wednesday with the criminal justice system.

“Our system has got to wake up and start keeping these people in jail,” Daniel York, a former sheriff’s deputy, said.

“I’ve been in the system long enough to know that it’s going to happen,” York said. “And I’ve been angry at the system for a long time because of that.”

The circumstances that resulted in Willis receiving a sentence shorter than his criminal history would allow was a simple, unfortunate error that is bound to occur occasionally in a state where the three-strikes law has redefined sentencing and in a county with the nation’s busiest prosecutorial office, authorities said.

While Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti had no comment on the matter Wednesday, his chief deputy, Sandra L. Buttitta, said: “The truth of the matter is that with the hundreds of thousands of cases we process a year for filing, occasionally a human error is made.”

Other prosecutors, including Hall’s supervisors in the Compton/Lynwood office, praised the Harvard graduate as a top trial attorney in an office with nearly 1,000 lawyers.

Hall became involved in the case after Willis was arrested in December 1994 at a swap meet near Compton by a security guard who spotted him with a handgun. Because the then-27-year-old gang member had been convicted in the 1988 restaurant robbery, the handgun possession charge became a felony.

In reviewing the defendant’s criminal rap sheet, Hall recalled Wednesday, he overlooked information--including the length of a prison term--that would have indicated that the earlier robbery involved more than one victim. (In fact, the six victims included two Los Angeles police officers.)

“I saw it as a prior strike, but I did not see it was multiple counts,” Hall said. “If I had, I would have filed it as a third-strike case.”

In that event, Willis probably would have demanded a trial rather than have pleaded guilty and would have faced a minimum 25-year sentence if convicted.

As a result of the oversight, Willis was charged with a second-strike felony case and pleaded guilty to a sentence that, under the three-strikes law, was automatically doubled.

Released early this year, Willis now stands accused--with Boyce--of murdering York during a robbery.

According to authorities, York and his fiancee, Jennifer Parish, also a sheriff’s deputy, were at the De’ Cut Hair Salon in Buena Park when the gunmen stormed in about 9 p.m. and ordered the two--and the fiancee’s sister who worked at the salon--to lie down on the floor.

The gunmen made off with $11 and Parish’s custom-made engagement ring. They killed York, authorities said, after rifling through his wallet and learning that he was a deputy.

“I can’t recall a more coldblooded crime,” Sheriff Sherman Block said after the incident. “This was a pure execution.”

Daniel York had warned his son about the dangers of being a cop, he said Wednesday at the sheriff’s training facility in Whittier. He had seen the risks firsthand while working as a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in some of the grittiest parts of the county.

No matter, he recalled. Shayne York told his father that he wanted, more than anything else, to be a deputy. The younger York never seemed happier than the day he graduated from the academy, pinning his badge on for the first time, his father said.

On Wednesday, Daniel York struggled to find solace in knowing that his son was following his dream, even though it was that dream that cost him his life less than two years after he joined the department.

“My son was executed for no other reason than because he worked in a profession that he loved so much,” York said. “We’re devastated.”

York--who worked for the department for 17 years--said Shayne decided when he was 10 that he wanted to be a sheriff’s deputy. He would sometimes spend the night at a county jail, Wayside--now Pitchess Detention Center--when his father worked the graveyard shift.

After graduating from high school in the small mountain community of Frazier Park, Shayne studied criminal justice, earning a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State University.

“He wanted to follow in my footsteps,” said York, who retired from the department 10 years ago. “He was well aware of the whole scenario of being a police officer. When he committed to that choice, I backed him all the way.

“The look on his face the day he graduated from the academy, I wouldn’t have taken that away from him for anything. He was all smiles. I told him how proud I was.”

Thousands of people--including Gov. Pete Wilson and police officers from across the state--are expected to attended Shayne’s funeral in Torrance today.

“The good and wonderful people far outnumber those who bring tragedy into our lives,” York said. “We’re reminded that there are a lot more good people out there than bad. But we need to work diligently in getting the bad people off the streets so the good people can live their lives the way they want to, and not have to worry about losing a son to a senseless killing.”

Times staff writer Jeff Leeds contributed to this story.